CANDLEMASS — Ancient Dreams (review)

CANDLEMASS — Ancient Dreams album cover Album · 1988 · Traditional Doom Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Ancient Dreams" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Swedish doom metal act Candlemass. The album was released through Active Records in November 1988. It´s the second album with Messiah Marcolin manning the microphone.

Stylistically the music on the album pretty much continues down the same epic doom metal path of "Nightfall (1987)". "Ancient Dreams" is actually very similar both in sound and style to "Nightfall (1987)" and in many ways they can be called sibling albums. That is in large part due to the distinct sounding semi-operatic vocal delivery of Messiah Marcolin, but the songwriting approach, the sound production and the high standard musicianship are also features that are similar on both albums.

The tempos used on the tracks are slow- to mid paced and generally crushingly heavy, but always with an emphasis on melody and memorability. There´s an epic atmosphere throughout the album and even when the band play more energetic like they do on tracks like "Mirror Mirror" and "Bearer of Pain", they are still pretty epic sounding.

"Ancient Dreams" is upon conclusion another "classic" doom metal release by Candlemass. It might be a bit too similar in sound and style to "Nightfall (1987)" and the overall quality just slightly lower than on it´s predecessor, but it´s still a high quality release and rated on it´s own a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is fully deserved.
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